Being Bong

Busting myths #1 : Bengali people eat fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner

Thank you so much for the awesome response on the previous chapter and making it go up on the what's hot list in such a short duration! I'm still jumping and dancing around if you want to know :D

Well I really do hope the second chapter lives up to your expectations, I was a bit distracted while writing it. Let me know what you guys think about this chapter :)

Thank you and I seriously love you all!

Busting myths #1 : Bengali people eat fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner

Ok, I admit it that most of the Bengali people I’ve come across do love fish, but just because they love fish doesn’t mean that they have it for breakfast lunch and dinner! If someone serves me the same dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner for even three days in a row, I’ll start resenting it and on the fourth day when it’s served again I’ll run away faster than Bolt! And it’s not just me, I believe most of you guys will also have the same reaction if you were being served the same food again and again.

Just because someone’s Bengali, doesn’t mean that they will automatically love fish. Most of my Bengali friends prefer chicken over fish. Whenever we go to the roll wala’s stall in campus, I’ve never seen anyone order fish roll or fish chowmein, they always order chicken roll or chicken chowmein or veg roll/chowmein. If you go to Zeeshan near Park Circus, the rolls they make there are yummy, and even there people always go for their chicken roll, not fish roll. And then there’s the famous Arsalan also in Park Circus, and everyone in the city loves their Biryani. But then again I’ve never seen anyone order fish Biryani. Yeah, you guessed it right. They go for chicken Biryani.

Some of the fish dishes are really yummy, especially when they are served with shorshe bata jhol (mustard paste gravy). My personal favorites are Ilish, Buwal , all of them as long as it’s prepared with the shorshe bata jhol.

But the only problem with fish is kata bachcha (separating fish bone). Being the lyadhkhor (lazy person/procrastinator) person that I’m, I avoid eating fish for the sole purpose of kata bachha. Does that make me any less Bengali than the other Bengalis? No, it doesn’t! So many of my cousins avoid eating fish for the same reason, but still we are very much Bengali.

The other problem with eating fish is kata laga, no not that dj doll song! That song has nothing to do with eating fish. By kata laga I mean when the kata (fish bone) gets stuck on your throat. It’s worse when it gets stuck on your teeth (molars mostly) and it happens to me all the time and the primary reason why I avoid fish. But if you go to a restaurant for eating (obviously!), you can order kata chhara (boneless) machh (fish). But the thrill of eating mach, kata bechhe is purely something else.

Yeah even I’ve herd the famous line “machh ta kha, mathar jonne bhalo (eat fish, it’s good for the brain)” from my mother. But until now I never really paid any attention to look up if fish is really good for the brains or not! So I typed it into google and one of the websites showed up with this answer:

Certain fish, salmon and tuna among them, are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. This type of fatty acid promotes improved nervous system and cardiovascular system functioning.

And for those of you seeking a more scientific and defined explanation, another website came up with this answer:

FINDINGS:        

A new study by UCLA researchers shows that a diet lacking in omega-3 fatty acids, which are commonly found in fish, may cause your brain to age faster and lose some of its memory and thinking capabilities. The research demonstrated that people with lower levels of omega-3 fatty acids have lower brain volumes — equivalent to approximately two years of structural brain aging.